It has been probably the worst-kept secret in snooker this year but yesterday it was confirmed that Australia will this season play host to a new ranking event tournament in Victoria…
While the tournament has yet to be officially launched by World Snooker on its website, as reported here it has been confirmed that the Australian Goldfields Open will be staged for the first time this July at the Bendigo Stadium in Victoria.
Neil Robertson commented earlier on Twitter:
“In Bendigo to help launch the Australian Goldfields Open. Really special day not just for me but for ALL Aussie snooker fans.”
Details are few and far between at the moment but assuming that the ‘overseas ranking event’ referred to on World Snooker’s calendar page does in fact refer to this tournament, the event will be staged between the 18th-24th July 2011 with the qualifiers being played between the 27th-30th June 2011.
According to this report at The Snooker Blog, there will be a total prize fund of $425,000 and as anticipated on my projected seedings page, the rankings points tariff will be the same as that used at both the German Masters and Welsh Open.
Expect more details to be revealed on the tournament shortly, probably later on today over at WorldSnooker.com.